The Grammy Awards have never been short of gold. Gold records. Gold statuettes. Gold standards thanks to the world’s greatest musicians. But for the 2026 season, the Recording Academy and its technology partner IBM are betting on a different kind of gold standard: a fan experience with “agentic AI” to decide once and for all, Who’s the biggest music geek?
IBM’s digital partnership with the Grammy Awards is a behind-the-scenes affair that goes back to 2015. This season’s GRAMMY® IQ powered by IBM watsonx puts IBM in the spotlight. A brand new set of digital experiences turns your average Grammy party into a habit.
The Ultimate Nerdy Backstage Pass
The essence of this announcement is a new way to enjoy music trivia. We all know the person at a party who can tell you who produced that obscure song on the B-side of a 1970s funk album. Or which classical composer inspired a certain hit song? GRAMMY IQ wants to help you be that person.
This tool, powered by IBM’s Granite 3.0 large language model, doesn’t just pull facts from a database. It hosts a dialog-based trivia contest that draws on these archives from the Recording Academy. The AI is a quizmaster, offering background and hints rather than just giving right or wrong answers.
So you can guess when the AI does its best to remind you who won Album of the Year in 1998, it’s better than just saying “Incorrect.” A good assistant throws in a couple of extra tidbits of information about how that artist changed hip-hop as we know it. It turns trivia into a history lesson on music.
A Big Cloud and A Museum-Size Exhibit
You won’t be glued to your mobile device, though. This partnership reimagines the Recording Academy’s partnership with the GRAMMY Museum®.
Who needs plaques in an old museum? With a bit of work on the tech side, IBM is upgrading its “Musical Crossroads” exhibit with watsonx tech.
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Musical fans now have access to almost 200 musical genres on the fourth floor.
With AI, they can visualize how interconnected all these genres are.
This assistant shows just how often and how deeply a folk musician’s chord progressions inspired all those sound engineers who put together the beats that form the bedrock of hip-hop.
A Tune-Up for Recording Professionals
While fans argue over places on leaderboards that declare them “Supreme Music Nerds,” The pros receive their due. This partnership rolls out AI-powered tools for Recording Academy professionals to avoid duplicating tasks.
AI reimagines the recording business with new user portals and automated translations to make all information available in 4 languages.
This makes sense. After all, all music is universal. You might be a composer working on an Italian opera or a recording engineer in Latin America. These AI tools should help you skip boring tasks like renewing your Academy membership.
An Encore
“We’re not only unlocking the richness of our history and data; we’re inviting fans and members everywhere to engage with music in more meaningful and… exciting ways,” says Adam Roth, Executive VP of Global Partnerships at the Recording Academy.
As we prepare for Music’s Biggest Night in 2026, we’ve learned one thing: when it comes to code, AI can do it. Writing songs takes creativity. Putting them together is where you find harmony.
